Mhsc

We have sold a lot of it though, and Gallagher out next. Personally I think several of the kids need good loans (Chuk, Hall, Casadei) and Santos is the one who looks ready to perhaps stay with the squad. That gives us Enzo and Santos currently, and some youth that might break in if they do well on loan at a top flight club - but next year. And some possibilities for people like Reese to play there too. Personally I’d like to add some height, power and pace in DM to 1. Balance Enzo and 2. Cover Thiago. The main advantage of Caicedo is that if Enzo gets injured or rested, Caicedo can fill his role. Without Caicedo we have big dependency on Enzo and our quality will drop noticeably without him.

Onana would absolutely lift our team levels, because he is a serious premier league quality DM who fills a hole for us. I do not think we should subsequently NOT sign Caicedo, if it can be done for sensible money. But Onana would bring something totally different to our midfield that we need, is affordable and versatile.

I will be disgusted if that happens. If we were willing to go there, we should have done it already and given him a proper preseason with us. That would be ultimate shameful panic that would prove our staff don't know what they're doing. I don't believe it will happen.

Yeah, I assume Lavia and Liverpool have actually had an agreement for a while which is why no one else ended up going for him. Painful we've not got someone in by now. I reckon we should just get Amadou Onana, he is versatile AF and a big beast of a man, and likely to be vastly more sensibly priced. Even if we get Caicedo later, a midfield of Enzo, Caicedo, Onana and Santos would be a really good mix, and getting him (or someone similar) sorted takes us from a position of weakness to a position of strength in these negotiations so we can let this run til deadline day if needed.

Tbh 100% agreed it is time for our scouting team to earn their money. Caicedo is brilliant but come on, there is another 2 or 3 people like him at least who have not been discovered and brought to a top team yet for sure - and more arriving every year as new talent appears. Don't know about Boudaoui but I 100% guarantee there are many players that are affordable and bring us everything we need in the aggregate (running, pressing, tackling, interceptions, passing). A <£50m player should be more than enough given Enzo's presence. Remember our first pick was Ugarte, Caicedo was our backup option.

Imagine taking the time to fabricate something like this LOL

Unfortunately all academy players that aren’t guaranteed starters are essentially FFP money printing machines. If we sell him and buy a replacement it looks good on the books as amortisation splits up the buying fee but selling fee is 100% profit in the window. So it only makes sense not to sell if 1. We think we can’t replace or upgrade for similar money or 2. We can’t replace with HG and are worried about having enough HG

Well, surprised we’ve not gone in with the final bid yet - maybe we are waiting for Caicedo to get more angry and public about this BS. Maybe the rumour that they had agreement he can leave in summer was all BS, in which case this deal is likely not happening as he’s just signed a massively long contract and they’re under no pressure to sell UNLESS that agreement was real. Honestly just get in Lavia or another player and let’s approach this from a position of strength. The depth in MF will be good.

Pys absolutely losing his mind saying we should pay 100m or whatever it takes to get Caicedo done. Gonna be hard to keep following him.

Mbappe would obviously be amazing (willing to believe his problem behaviour is genuinely down to PSG being insane) but I just can't bring myself to get onboard with us having 1 player making so much more than the rest of the squad, if it were feasible he could play here at 400k-500k a week I'd be down for it but the lad will be after millions per week not hundreds of thousands. A one year loan deal just to give him a home before he goes to Madrid feels like the only VAGUELY possible scenario, which still feels extraordinarily unlikely.

I think the best paid player in the league is De Bruyne at 400k pw base, so if we offered Mbappe a ludicrous 500k per week lets say and pay some huge fee to sign him then yes we would be fine with the clear out that's happened / happening. But Mbappe wont be happy with what we call superstar money in the PL after what he's been on at PSG and is being promised elsewhere.

Maybe if our stance was that he is staying, if he is not being offered a new contract (2 years on his deal left) and we're shopping him around... Only way is if clubs get into a bidding war over him, I guess.

How much are we really going to get for him if we are broadcasting he is for sale? Maybe £40m? Still will be good in the FFP books, but I was expecting him to stay at this point - he has done alright in preseason, albeit filling a hole in CM that shouldn't exist. Have no doubt he will have a good PL career, was just never clear if he is at the calibre we need if we want to win titles again.

He is no where near the level of Vini Jr or Mbappe and I've not seen anyone talking like that, but I've made a couple of posts on here about why I am overall positive about the move. He is an assist machine and look at his defensive quality, which apparently no one cares about here but you just KNOW Poch does, he is also pretty rapid. I honestly think with his work ethic and his wizard left foot he would become fan favourite here. I also think he would be first choice set piece taker by quite a way, unless any of the new boys have talents I'm unaware of (possible). My only concern is his injury and whether now is the right moment. I wonder if Gallagher is on his way out if this is actually his replacement in the squad?

Seeing Jackson, Nkunku & Mudryk all cooking with Enzo on the pitch behind them is the sexual energy I'm waiting for. It has potential to be more deadly than the Costa / Fabregas / Hazard era, in fact when you compare our squad with the 16/17 team the only two areas where we're clearly worse is the loss of Kante and Courtois.

RJ should obviously get minutes as it is preseason but based on Malo's performances so far he should be the name assumed in the XI at RB IMO.

Just as Man Utd did with us. We don't want to be negative and burn the relationship with Caicedo. We make a great offer and it is there for them to take if they want to. If we end up signing someone else then at that time we tell them / him we are no longer interested. It leaves the door open for Caicedo to pressure them and for them to change their mind, rather than us being seen to have burnt the relationship and walked away from talks.

Given time difference, I imagine by this evening we will hear the latest on Caicedo, which I personally hope is the final and best offer (ala Mount) with scope left for messing around with the structure but not the amount itself. We should probably leave it as an open offer, to give them and ourselves scope to conclude it as late as deadline day. But, if they've not said yes or are making noises that only minor negotiation is needed, we need to be opening talks for backup candidate no.1 by Wednesday at the LATEST. My guess is we immediately look to agree personal terms with Lavia, but it would be interesting if we were to make a ~£80m bid for Tchou given the Mbappe situation - that would put Brighton / Caicedo under way more pressure as it would mean permanently ending interest in him whereas with Lavia you could argue we'd still be open to getting him.

Kudus immediately benches Madueke to play RW and rotates in to play at 10 for Nkunku imo. Would be a great signing. Hard on Madueke but he does have injury record.

Olise can play anywhere in the 3 behind the striker btw but tends to play either CAM or RW afaik. Don’t really understand the lack of interest in him, based on his ability he is insanely creative with a wizard left foot, set piece specialist (currently don’t have one), excellent in the press and he tackles, blocks and intercepts like a machine. Would be a great squad player and at a sensible price if buy out is real, Palaces player of the year too in a squad that had some good talent. Only problem for me is he has a serious hamstring injury and you could (and maybe should) argue it is better to wait, if it is true he has a clause and if that clause is active in Jan then why not check how his recovery is?

And Enzo? He’s a great player but… do you know what leadership looks like? He’s done nothing, not even close, to be a leader. Not yet. Maybe he can grow like that. I’ve only seen Thiago and Kepa be vocal and opinionated and driven on the pitch from this group. Probably Gallagher would be ahead of Enzo too.

Honestly have a feeling this Lukaku / Inter beef is fake and they’re just playing us to try to win the negotiation. They’ll come back on deadline day with a ‘forgiveness’ offer of €35m.

You managed to totally avoid my question. I think Thiago or, and I know people will lose their mind, Kepa are the only two people I’ve seen display leadership in this squad. Can’t comment on new players yet.

Not convinced by either as Captain, what leadership exactly have they shown?

Olise is interesting, like a middle ground between Cherki and Kudus, has the defensive side covered well (like Kudus) and puts out serious assist numbers (like Cherki) but suffers from the same lack of goal scoring as Cherki. Would take Kudus if it is between the two of them, but definitely either over Cherki. He’s also a set piece specialist which we are currently lacking. If we get both surely someone is going out on loan (Angelo?) and someone is up for a last minute sale, maybe Sterling if Poch is contemplating a Mudryk/Maatsen LW?